Revolutionary Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich: biography, life history and interesting facts

The future revolutionary Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich was born on August 15, 1887 in a small Latvian farm in Tsauni. His parents were ordinary peasants. The boy's education was limited to two classes in the parish school. At the age of 18, Jan joined the party of the RSDLP, and later, rejecting the ideas of the Mensheviks, joined the Bolsheviks.

The Young Revolutionary

By nationality Rudzutak was a Latvian, therefore his party work was mainly connected with his native country. He took the underground name Pumpur and headed the local Vindava Committee of the RSDLP. The organization quickly gained strength and grew. Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich was responsible for transportation to Latvia of illegal books, brochures, weapons, agitation newspapers that were brought on ships from abroad under the guise of trade cargoes.

This was done after the first revolution of 1905-1906 had died down. Many activists were arrested at that time, and the police continued to search for other Bolsheviks known for their radical position in relation to the authorities. With the help of the recruiting of the wives of the already planted revolutionaries, the secret police agents managed to first get on the trail, and then to infiltrate the Windavsky Committee. In 1909, Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in hard labor.

1917th

The Bolshevik, like many of his comrades in misfortune, was released ahead of time thanks to the February Revolution and the ensuing amnesty. Caught in the wild, Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich immediately joined the already familiar party work. He became an instructor in the Moscow Regional Bureau of Soviets. The most important function of the revolutionary was to establish contacts with textile unions in the Central Industrial Area. In this proletarian milieu the Bolsheviks conducted particularly thorough agitation.

Very quickly, Jan Ernestovich Rudzutak was elected secretary of the board of the textile workers union of the Moscow region. He organized the largest strike of 1917, which began on October 21. In this protest action against hard working conditions, 300,000 workers took part. The coordinated action led to the shutdown of Shuya, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kostroma, Kineshma, and Kovrov. A few days after these events supporters of Lenin staged a coup in Petrograd. On the change of power in the capital Rudzutak, who was in Moscow, he found out by phone. Soon the Bolsheviks established control over the Holy See.

Work in the Supreme Economic Council

In May 1918, Yang Ernestovich Rudzutak became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council (Supreme Council of National Economy). At the same time, he began to direct the department of the textile industry. The member of the party faced a serious task - to restore the work of the stopped enterprises. In addition, they needed to be nationalized. New orders did not suit everyone, that's why the work in the Supreme Economic Council boiled without stopping. The problem was not just a lack of jobs. Without the new cloth, it was impossible to dress the newly created Red Army.

When the government moved to Moscow, the meetings of the Supreme Economic Council sometimes began to take place in the Kremlin. On one of them Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich (a revolutionary, unlike the top of the party, never lived in emigration) met Vladimir Lenin. Two Bolsheviks quickly found a common language. A little later, Lenin supported the initiative of Rudzutak, who offered to requisition as soon as possible the fabrics that were in the hands of the magnates and big capitalists. In VSNH then, as in all government bodies, because of the Civil War, the decisions were made forcefully.

In Central Asia

In 1922, after the defeat of the Whites and the establishment of Soviet power in most of the territory of the former Russian Empire, Jan Rudzutak was sent to the Central Asian Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.), Where he became secretary. In this region, nationalistic sentiments were still strong. Basmachi no longer represented a threat to the new government, but periodically attacked the Red Army detachments. Agriculture was in decline. The basis of the Central Asian economy was cotton, but because of the war and the damage caused by it, it was almost never planted.

Yann Ernestovich Rudzutak took up the solution of all these problems. The biography of this revolutionary is very similar to the biographies of other Bolsheviks of the first wave. Depending on the instructions of the party, he constantly changed positions and specialization of activities. While in Central Asia, he periodically visited Moscow on working issues. So, in 1923 he took part in the work of the Twelfth Party Congress. In Bukhara, he managed to restore the agrarian sector and bring life back to peaceful channels. To this end, he initiated subsidizing cooperative activities, which enabled the poor to take loans and rebuild their farms.

People's commissar of communications

In 1924, Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich (1887-1938) received a new appointment. He became a People's Commissar of Communications. After the Civil War, the country remained with obsolete, worn out and spoiled cars and trains that could not withstand the proper load and often failed. A third of the Soviet bridges were destroyed. Another half needed to be replaced, because these communications were built in the XIX century and are already hopelessly outdated.

It was also necessary to replace 15 thousand kilometers of railroad tracks. The decision of all these problems was taken up by Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich. The activities of the People's Commissar acquired immense importance for the life of the whole country. Under his leadership, a unified railroad management system was created. As in any state business, there was a lot of bureaucracy and red tape in this process, with which we had to put up, then fight.

Restoration of Soviet communications

A year after taking office, Jan Rudzutak was able to test the first domestic diesel locomotive built in Leningrad. This new mode of transport was much more economical than the models used before. In 1926, transportation by rail for the first time exceeded pre-war indicators.

In addition, under the authority of the People's Commissariat of Railways there was also a river and sea fleet and highways. Many ports were destroyed, and the ships sunk. Due to lack of funds, Rudzutak strongly supported the construction of small river vessels, which were more economical and more accessible than a large fleet. In 1927 the people's commissar of communications suggested that the construction of the Volga-Don canal be started. But that was not all. Also, in the Rostov area, it was planned to deepen the Don, so that sea vessels could travel along the river to the grain production area (grain remained an important part of exports).

At the head of party control

Fruitful activity, which led Rudzutak as a People's Commissar, could not but lead to his gradual rise on the career ladder. In 1931, the Bolshevik became chairman of the Central Control Commission. This body was responsible for party discipline. At the head of the control until Jan Rudzutak stood Valerian Kuibyshev and Grigory Ordzhonikidze.

The Office, among other things, included a complaints office, where complaints were received from workers from enterprises. The functioning of these bodies was provided by people's inspectors. They followed the implementation of the Leninist principles and had to eradicate the bureaucracy on the ground.

A talented organizer

The work of the Central Control Commission became especially important during the first two five-year plans. For example, in 1933 difficulties began to arise with the supply of ore to the largest metallurgical plants in the country. Production in the Kuzbass and Krivoy Rog deposits declined. It was the Central Control Commission that was able to find and mobilize economic reserves and mitigate the negative effects of the crisis.

Rudzutak, who supervised all these processes, had to apply the maximum of his abilities. Friends noted that at home he had a huge library, to which he devoted much of his free time. Most of all the chairman of the Central Control Commission was interested in financial, economic and technical literature.

Arrest and execution

The fate of Jan Rudzutak was similar to the fate of many of his associates among the first Bolsheviks who joined the party before the revolution and occupied important state and party posts in the USSR. In 1937 he was arrested. The charge included espionage in favor of Germany and counter-revolutionary Trotskyite activity. Voronok came for Rudzutak when he was at his dacha. Jan Ernestovich quietly got into the car, after which no one else saw him.

The former People's Commissar was shot on July 29, 1938. He became one of the many victims of the Stalinist terror. Many top officials then finished the same way as Rudzutak Jan Ernestovich. The family of the deceased achieved his rehabilitation in 1956 after the 20th party congress.